Hans Tweet

Hans & Tweet is an ambitious project (not to mention - the first of its kind at Massey University), creating a stop-motion children's television series, about a red panda and an egg, who dream of becoming great supervillains. We invite you to support our journey in producing this show, which not only will bring awareness to us and our children about taking care of the Earth and its other residents, but also teaching good morals around believing in yourself, chasing the big dreams, and what a true and dedicating friendship looks like. Hans & Tweet taps into the child in all of us.

About the series:

Hans, an eccentric and inventive red panda, runs amok in Morepork City, a human city, with his trusty sidekick, Tweet, an egg-on-legs. Because of the destruction of their habitats, they were brought to the Morepork City zoo. Together they escaped, and now reside in the city junkyard, where they scavenge scraps for their wacky inventions. With their hatred for humans, they vow to be the greatest supervillains the city has ever seen! They invent an invention each episode to commit a crime, but they're not too good at it...

The series consists of eight episodes, each being approximately 90 seconds long. There is no dialogue and every action is heavily accompanied by music and sound.

Hans & Tweet is an action-filled, fast-paced, stop - motion show for children who can't stop.
Targeted at 7-9 year olds, we wish to expose them to themes of friendship and determination, and to also educate them about habitat loss, the human footprint, and recycling, by giving a voice to the animals, in a fun, action-filled show.

Who are we?

We are an ambitious team of Creative Media Production students at Massey University who are pioneering as the first stop - motion project in our degree. We're creative risk takers in our field, filled with determination to see this project come to life. Initially, we received a lot of resistance from our university tutors. There were concerns around the frame-by-frame stop-motion process taking a long time to complete, and also around our previous experience in the field. However our determination saw us continue pushing forward and we were given the green light from our tutors to get pioneering.

Producer - Jing Jing Ke
Director - Tony Matich
Character Technical Director - Saina Filipo
Art Director/Lead Concept Artist - Niamh O'Connell
Art Department:
Hayley Thompson, Kaity Vidiluch, Danielle Johnstone
Logo Designer:
Anton Ward
VFX Team:
Ben Godden, Bailey Kilmartin, Quinn Fenton
Behind the Scenes:
Ben Milligan, Jorden Young, Paul Luo

There is not a lot of representation of stop - motion in New Zealand, especially for children, when it is a creative medium that is as important as any other.

How does your support help us?

Your donations will go towards extra set and puppet materials such as paint, metals, wood, molds and clay needed for repair during animation due to wear-and-tear, the contracting fees for our voice actors and composer, and the pitch and presentation costs including marketing material for distribution and travel costs.

Just like how Hans and Tweet would not give up on their dreams, we will not, either! We are paving the brickwork for future New Zealand creatives that want to pursue a similar animation style, and teaching children about habitat loss, the impact of the human footprint on our world, and to educate them on the power of friendship and believing in your goals, even if the world is against you.Be a part of our Hans & Tweet team!